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The Lucky Charms Bible

I love lucky charms. And not just because I bear a striking resemblance to the guy on the box. I love the way the marshmallows taste, the fun different types of shapes, and the neat colors the milk turns as the colored sugar dissolves.

One day, I was eating breakfast in the dining hall of my college. One of my classmates sat down across from me and on his tray were a heaping bowl of lucky charms, an empty bowl, and a 20oz. bottle of Mountain Dew.

I watched as he meticulously separated the marshmallow shapes out from the pieces of wheat cereal. He placed the marshmallow pieces in his empty bowl until he had a healthy helping of colorful sugar, and another bowl that more closely resembled Cheerios rather than Lucky Charms. Then, he poured the Mountain Dew on the ‘mallows, and proceeded to eat them as though there was nothing odd. When he was done, he threw away the wheat parts and left.

I’m impressed that he didn’t go into shock, and glad I wasn’t sitting by him in my next class. But that image of picking out the sugary stuff and washing it down with pure (delicious) caffeine has always stuck with me.

A lot of people read the Bible the way my buddy ate his Lucky Charms. They pick out the sweet parts that are fun to eat. The feel good things like don’t steal, help the poor, God loves you, and other verses that are pretty easy to swallow. They are happy to eat the marshmallows of the Bible, but stay away from the parts that don’t taste as good. Things like don’t be arrogant or greedy, don’t gossip, stay pure, put others before yourself, and other verses that require us to actually change how we live.

You know those Nutritional Facts panels on the sides of cereal boxes? The results are based on eating everything in the box, not just one part. The Bible works the same way, the whole thing is good, and meant to be taken as a whole. So we need to be sure that we don’t just pick the comfortable, tasty, sugary parts of being a Christian. We need to take everything the Bible says, even the parts that are hard to swallow, and make it a part of our life. Any other way, just isn’t healthy.

Comments(2)

Alex Lombardi says

January 2, 2011 at 1:31 am

Hey I love this! We just moved from CA and a very awesome church called Calvary Chapel which we miss very much. On the local Christian station they had these little Christian “infomercials” where they’d use a humorous illustration to share a Biblical truth. And one of the ones that always stuck with us was the one where they talked about the “erasible” Bible, conveniently written in no. 2 lead so you could easily erase the parts you didn’t like, and this made it easier to share the Bible with people without offending them with the parts about being sinners and needing Jesus to get saved, etc. So I love your story (besides being disturbing and hilarious all at the same time)! We are looking for a new church to plug into and we’d like to come visit yours. Our search so far has been rather discouraging ( three churches later), but we are hopeful of finding one that hold Jesus supreme and help us in our walk with Him! I was looking at your website and I really liked what I read (my husband hates to read). We look forward to seeing you!

Luke says

January 2, 2011 at 11:20 am

Hi Alex, I’m glad to hear you liked the story. And I absolutely hope you come and experience Northwood. The search for a new church can be hard, especially when you leave a church you loved. We’re pretty big fans of Jesus here, and our mission is to help people believe in Jesus and become more like him. Hopefully that means we can be the perfect place for you (and your “anti-literate” husband) to grow in your relationship with God. Be sure to say hi when you stop by!